Sea Swift is Australia's largest privately owned

shipping company A shipping line or shipping company is a company whose line of business is ownership and operation of ships. Shipping companies provide a method of distinguishing ships by different kinds of cargo: # Bulk cargo is a type of special cargo that ...

. It operates in Northern Australia, mainly servicing remote and regional communities in

Far North Queensland Far North Queensland (FNQ) is the northernmost part of the Australian state of Queensland. Its largest city is Cairns and it is dominated geographically by Cape York Peninsula, which stretches north to the Torres Strait, and west to the Gulf ...

and the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Au ...

. The company provides freight and passenger services, and maritime logistical support, operating four

container ship A container ship (also called boxship or spelled containership) is a cargo ship that carries all of its load in truck-size intermodal containers, in a technique called containerization. Container ships are a common means of commercial intermoda ...

s in addition to

barge Barge nowadays generally refers to a flat-bottomed inland waterway vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. The first modern barges were pulled by tugs, but nowadays most are pushed by pusher boats, or other vessels. ...

tug A tugboat or tug is a marine vessel that manoeuvres other vessels by pushing or pulling them, with direct contact or a tow line. These boats typically tug ships in circumstances where they cannot or should not move under their own power, suc ...

s and

landing craft Landing craft are small and medium seagoing watercraft, such as boats and barges, used to convey a landing force ( infantry and vehicles) from the sea to the shore during an amphibious assault. The term excludes landing ships, which are large ...

History

Sea Swift started in 1987 when founder Sid Faithfull identified an opportunity to service

Gulf of Carpentaria The Gulf of Carpentaria (, ) is a large, shallow sea enclosed on three sides by northern Australia and bounded on the north by the eastern Arafura Sea (the body of water that lies between Australia and New Guinea). The northern boundary ...

fishing fleets by mothershipping from Karumba. Over the next 25 years, Sea Swift grew to become Australia's largest privately owned shipping company, operating regular freight, mothershipping, project logistics, and passenger cruise services from its Cairns headquarters to communities throughout Far North Queensland. Expanding to 19 vessels, six depots, and 300 staff in Queensland, today Sea Swift continues to service remote communities along

Cape York Peninsula Cape York Peninsula is a large peninsula located in Far North Queensland, Australia. It is the largest unspoiled wilderness in northern Australia.Mittermeier, R.E. et al. (2002). Wilderness: Earth’s last wild places. Mexico City: Agrupación ...

and in the Gulf of Carpentaria, as well as the

Torres Strait Islands The Torres Strait Islands are a group of at least 274 small islands in the Torres Strait, a waterway separating far northern continental Australia's Cape York Peninsula and the island of New Guinea. They span an area of , but their total land ...

, including Horn Island,

Thursday Island Thursday Island, colloquially known as TI, or in the Kawrareg dialect, Waiben or Waibene, is an island of the Torres Strait Islands, an archipelago of at least 274 small islands in the Torres Strait. TI is located approximately north of Cap ...

and the outer islands. In early 2013, through the acquisition of Tiwi Barge, Sea Swift commenced an operation in the

. The initial two-vessel and 15-person operation servicing four destinations has grown to become a nine-vessel, 144-person, three-depot operation servicing 25 destinations across the Territory. In total, Sea Swift now has 26 vessels, nine depots, and more than 430 staff in its operation across Northern Australia.

Services

Sea Swift has four main service streams: * Project logistics – barge/tug and landing craft operations and crewed (or bare boat) vessel chartering. * Sea freight – scheduled liner and coastal freight services accommodating regional break bulk, bulk fuel and container freight requirements. * Mothershipping – resupply and refuelling of trawlers at sea. * Passenger cruise – a working barge cruise from Cairns to the Torres Strait. Sea Swift's Project Logistics unit has seen jobs completed domestically to destinations including Brisbane, Townsville, Gladstone, Bundaberg, Torres Strait Islands, Mornington Island, Lizard Island, Palm Island, Darwin, Gove, Tiwi Islands, Arnhem Land, and many others – as far south as Newcastle and as far west as

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to ...

coastal mine sites. Internationally, jobs have been completed to

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

, South East Asia and the South Pacific. Clients serviced include BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto Alcan, South 32, Gemco, Woolworths, ALPA, Mt Gibson Iron, Sedgman, Bechtel, Santos, Queensland Government, Northern Territory Government, and many others.

Ships

The following vessels are currently within Sea Swift's fleet.

Container ships

*MV ''Trinity Bay'' – General cargo *MV ''Newcastle Bay'' – General cargo *MV ''Kestrel Bay'' – Fishery support vessel *MV ''Endeavour Bay'' - Fishery support vessel

Landing craft

*''Arnhem Trader'' *''Biquele Bay'' *''Coral Bay'' *''Fourcroy'' *''Kerema Chief'' *''Malu Chief'' *''Malu Explorer'' *''Malu Titan'' *''Malu Trader'' *''Malu Trojan'' *''Malu Warrior'' *''Tiwi Islander'' *''Temple Bay'' *''Territorian''

Tugs

*''Arjuna'' *''Agros'' *''Arion'' *''Cossack'' *''Norman River'' *''Staaten River''

Barges

*''SSB1802'' *''SSB1803'' *''Chryssus'' *''Comal'' *''Carcinos''

References

External links

Sea Swift website
{{coord, 16, 56, 48, S, 145, 46, 13, E, type:landmark_region:AU-QLD, display=title Cairns, Queensland Darwin, Northern Territory Far North Queensland Torres Strait Islands Companies based in Queensland Companies based in the Northern Territory